This Blog will chart the progress of the emergence of the use of computer screen technology to enable more people to maximise their reading performance across the world.

Friday, 14 December 2012

Story of John, a dyslexic young adult

I make no apologies for the technical nature of this blog.
John wanted this written down for others to read. It is not his name but in a
way it could be the story of thousands of people in this and other countries.

It will continue to be re-enacted across the world until
this issue is dealt with logically and effectively.

John

John did not recognize that he had ‘visual stress’ issues
but volunteered for a 1: 1 session to enable him to read more effectively.

He had actually been diagnosed as dyslexic when in
Primary school. At secondary school there was a breakdown in his relationships
with teachers. By mid day his reading
capability had virtually collapsed.

He did not wear
glasses but had been to an optician when he was 11 years old at the beginning
of secondary school, because he was experiencing headaches by the end of the school day.

He was told by the optician that he had good eyesight, in
fact exceptional, and was not prescribed glasses.

John had to turn his head sideways to prevent his left
eye aching when he read. Similarly he
needed to turn his head slightly sideways when looking at you.

In class he
needed to sit on a particular side of the class to be able to concentrate. He would regularly be admonished for reasons
he did not understand, indeed for actually concentrating because the teachers
misinterpreted his behaviour.

At 13 he had left with his parents for Spain, where he no
longer attended school.

A
quick Visual assessment of John

A rudimentary check on John’s vision identified the
following issues.

1. His left eye was short sighted with a far
point (loss of focus) at around 70 cms.

2.The
left eye demonstrated significant astigmatism.

3.His
right eye appeared to have no refractive issues but he had been told that it
was ‘lazy’, suppressed.

We do not know what the effect of correct glasses
prescription may have had on John’s education.

Too often I hear similar stories from dyslexic
undergraduates.

Eye
tracking data

A 120 Hz binocular eyetracker was used to assess his
visual management during reading

The two graphs above show that the right eye (upper graph)
is suppressed and not really’ travelling along the lines of text, the saccades
and fixations virtually indistinguishable.

The graph at the end of this blog
report shows that the saccades (rapid moves /straight lines on the graph) are
not really happening for the right eye!

By the third line the right eye is no longer
really moving along the line at all This seems to be influencing the left eye a
there appears to be a need to turn his head.

The fixations by the left eye show signs of ‘stress with
forward and backward drift ‘during picture taking. The graph at the end of this
blog shows that clearly.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Baseline
reading scores

Using
silent reading as a measure of reading performance

It took 25 seconds to read the text which consisted
of.102 words 224 words per second.

Reading text used with academically successful age
equivalents the rate was 91 words per minute aloud…Long words more complex
syntax,

Rapid
automatic naming

149 words per minute

There was no evidence of a need for a larger or smaller font.
Actually his optimum font appeared to be 12.

Screen
background optimisation

Using his optimal background his silent reading speed
doubled to around 440 words per minute.

Reading complex text aloud his reading speed increased to
182 words per minute for text which was with familiar vocabulary.

With complex text using advanced vocabulary and syntax
his reading speed, aloud increased to 134 wpm from 91 wpm on a white
background. Thus is a nearly 50% improvement in performance.

The graph below shows his eye movements when using his
optimum settings.

Both eyes are now moving in a similar but not identical pattern.

The above graph was obtained after an initial use of his
optimal background gave the following data.

The top graph, his right eye was gradually turning out and
there was consistently a great deal of head movement associated with
reading. This test was followed by a
series of reads using only his right eye with the optimal conditions. This has been used in the past with other students
and appears to trigger a change in eye movement management enabling better
coordination.

Details of eye movement data.

.

Using optimal conditions the saccades and fixations are
more like those of a fluent reader.

In addition the fixations are taking shorter amounts of
time. The average time needed is 285 milliseconds. Using default conditions the
time needed was 400 milliseconds.

There were also 41 fixations for 99 words 2.41 words per
fixation, whereas on default there were for 100 words, there were 85 fixations
or 1.17 words per fixation.

In other
words the system was typically processing twice as many words per
fixation. This is possibly the most
important factor influencing the improved fluency heard when someone is reading
using optimal conditions.